Back with the team
by aosfan
Summary: May and Ward had taken a time off the team. They had a good reason. But now what? AU, the same universe as the very short "new addition". A mayward. Obviously.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own anything that already belongs to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.**

**I still can't stand the horrifying truth of the last chapter, so I'm continuing with my AU about May and Ward and the little new addition to the S.H.I.E.L.D's family. This happens sometime in the future. I didn't incorporate the entire team yet. Maybe in a following chapter, we'll see. I hope you'll like it, please tell me what you think.**

* * *

"What the hell is that?!"

"What do you mean?" Ward looks up at Fitz's horrified face with bewilderment.

"What the hell is a 4 months old baby doing with a gun?!"

"What's wrong?" he looks back at his son who sits very comfortably on the holotable holding the night-night gun in his chubby little hands "it's unloaded."

"It's unloaded…" Fitz exasperates "you are a crazy person! You actually think it's okay, don't you?"

"Well" Ward crosses his arms on his chest, obviously feeling very sure about his actions "he has to start somewhere. I want him to feel comfortable around guns. It's for his own good."

"This is a mad house" Fitz exasperates, stepping towards Ward with a raised finger "first, Coulson lets you all come along on an active duty S.H.I.E.L.D. airplane…"

"It's hardly active" Wards scoffs "we don't even have a mission."

"_You!_" Fitz corrects him "_You_, have a mission. Not _WE_. 'We' are not on the bus anymore; 'We' are on leave of absence until your kid is old enough."

"Same thing…" he grumbles.

"Not really" Fitz shakes his head "and still doesn't explain why your 4 months old baby is holding a gun. Look, now he has it in his mouth."

"He's a baby" Ward smiles towards his son, who looks at him brightly from the holotable, smiling and drooling all over Fitz's equipment that is tossed haphazardly all around "babies always put things in their mouths, isn't that right buddy?" he reaches to the small kid and tussles his black hair lovingly.

"You're hopeless" Fitz sighs "I always knew you'll be a rotten parent. I mean, does May know?"

"May?" he frowns "I don't need permission from my wife to…" he looks at Fitz who only raises his brow skeptically "fine, maybe I do need her permission" he coughs slightly "but I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Wouldn't mind what?" May's voice is coming from behind them. When her son hears his mother's voice he starts to giggle and coo happily, throwing his hands in the air and almost breaks the holotable with the night-night gun "why does my son have a gun in his hand?" she asks threateningly when she sees the baby on the table.

"You see?" Fitz nudges Ward triumphantly "told you."

"I told you I don't want him to handle guns" she says to her husband as she's moving to pick up the child "at least not until he learns how to fight with his hands. I want him to feel comfortable with hand to hand combat before he digresses to rely on technology."

"What the hell…?!" Fitz cries indignantly.

"It's not digressing" Ward sighs "how many time do I need to repeat myself? There's no shame in using weapon to gain tactical advantage."

"Give him to me" Fitz moves towards May and pulls the smiling baby out of her arms "let's go kid; these people are bad for you. Let's go to the lab, I'll build you a super-sonic revolving swing and a baby size speed boat for your bathtub."

* * *

"Hey."

"Hey…" she smiles when she hears him entering the cockpit, without even needing to turn around. He moves to sit on the co-pilot's chair and they spend a few silent moments looking at the big sky around them.

"Just like old times, isn't it?" she says quietly, making him look at her.

"Well" he smiles sheepishly "not exactly…" he looks at the small child who sits on her lap, sleeping soundly.

She looks at the sleeping baby as well "I let him hold the stick earlier" she smiles "he pushed it forward really hard, he was practically ecstatic. I really think he liked it."

"So that what happened" he laughs "it felt like we had an engine breakdown or something. Simmons's entire science project was ruined when she spilled the wrong blue stuff into the yellow one…"

"What?"

"I don't know" he shrugs "she explained it, but it was really complicated, and I wasn't really listening."

She smiles at him in the dark cockpit, and he stops talking and just smiles back, looking at the two people he loves the most in the world. "It's nice to be back, ha?" he asks after a while "even if we're only hitchhiking." She nods, slowly "Mel… Look" he says after a short pause "I know we said we'll give it some time…"

"You want back, don't you?"

"I want back."

"Well" she shrugs "it took you longer than I thought it would."

"You're not mad?" he looks at her, surprised.

"How can I be mad? I know exactly how you feel."

They stay quiet for a long few minutes, each wrapped in his own thoughts, the starry night sky around them. It's the discussion they both feared since they left. Suddenly a small cry is heard from the direction of May's lap "oh no, my love" she picks the crying baby up and holds him against her bosom "don't cry, my beautiful boy, mommy's here. Shush baby…" she rocks him gently, trying to console him, kissing his head.

"He's probably hungry" Ward says, moving his hand and lays it softly on his son's head "I'll make him a bottle, shall I?"

He picks the crying child in his arms, and it helps him to calm down a little. He kisses his forehead and walks out of the cockpit "Grant" she says quietly before they leave "I'll speak to Coulson. I'm sure he'll take you back. He'll be thrilled."

"Mel don't, we'll talk about it later. We said from the beginning, if we have to choose who…"

"It's alright, Grant" she says, moving her hands on the controls slowly "I'm choosing this for all three of us."

* * *

When Coulson steps into the kitchen he finds Ward holding his infant baby feeding him with the bottle.

"Well well" he smiles "that's something you don't see every day."

He looks at back at his old commanding officer "I guess we all look a bit out of place here, don't we?" he smiles.

"On the contrary" Coulson says, coming closer to watch the baby suckling his milk with great enthusiasm "you look like a specialist."

They sit at the table, looking, hypnotized at the baby. It's been a while since they were all together like this, on the plane. After spending a few months on her own, in the Hub, during the end of her pregnancy, leaving the team and Ward to continue on their mission without her, finally the day of the birth arrived. They nearly missed it, they were hanging around in South Korea at the time, finishing another mission, and they only got there in the nick of time after Ward threatened to shoot their substitute pilot in the head if he his son will be born without his presence. Then, after spending a few emotional days all three of them together, in the Hub, and with the taste of the painful separation still fresh in their minds they both called Coulson to their temporary residence and informed him of their decision to take some time off away from their jobs and focus on their new small family. He heard from them a month later, when they sent him a wedding photo. It looked like a small ceremony, no family of course, just the two of them in an office of a state official, the baby in Ward's arms. It took him a few days to console Simmons and Skye for missing the event, and they only let it go after he promised to take the entire team to visit them after they finish their mission. Unfortunately it took almost 3 months to finish it, but when they did he kept his promise and they all showed up in the little farm house the new family now called home in rural Massachusetts. They were well due for their periodic clearance with Hub security, so he offered them all a ride on the bus. May sent him a suspicious look when he offered it, and he thought for a minute she saw straight into the deep meaning behind his plan, but she let her family on the plane, and gradually looked like she's starting to feel at home there, again. When she took her place in the pilot seat for the first time, he knew he had won.

"It's good to have you here again. All of you."

"Thank you, sir" he smiles "it's good to be here. Perhaps even too good."

"Really, how so?"

He pauses for a second, thinking about his wife flying the plane "It will make it harder to leave again."

"It will" Coulson agrees "maybe you shouldn't leave then."

"I can't" he laughs, but when he sees Coulson's serious expression he stops "I won't" he says quickly "we've made our decision, it's too early for us to…" Coulson only watches him attentively "I won't part with them" he says quietly "I wouldn't be able to. Mel is eager to come back just as much as I am, but we have… different priorities now." He looks down at his son, lying peacefully in his arms, falling asleep with the bottle in his mouth.

"He's amazing" Coulson smiles, watching the baby in Ward's arms.

"He is."

"He looks just like her, isn't he?"

"He's beautiful" the proud father agrees.

"You can both come back" Coulson says, moving away from him, walking towards the kitchen's door "lord knows we need you. The team is not as good without you two; the temporary guys are okay, but they're just not the same."

"Both of us? You can't be serious" Ward looks at him in alarm "Kai… he's still young… How in the world would we ever leave…"

"If he is anything like his parents, he'd be a natural fit." Coulson says smiling, and it takes a few seconds until it sinks in.

"Wait sir, are you saying…?"

"If that what it'll take to have my specialists back, then why not? We can make the appropriate adjustments in the Hub. Build a nursery, get a few toys..."

"You want to bring a baby to an active S.H.I.E.L.D aircraft? You can't be serious…" Coulson only smiles to himself as he's stepping out of the kitchen leaving Ward to dwell on the matter by himself.

* * *

"No!"

"Just think about it…"

"I said no!" she repeats, pulling the sheet away from him and covering her naked body. Trust her dear husband to mention his discussion with Coulson in the middle of their love making. The coward! Did he really think she would fall for this trick? He always does this. Whenever he tries to approach a potentially touchy subject or ask something he knows she'll refuse he does it during sex. He thinks he can use his naked body to disarm her from her logic and common sense? How dare he? Well, it's not a completely unreasonable tactic; she'll give him that. After all he is extremely handsome and sexy as hell and her mouth waters just from imagining him lying naked in her bed… For god's sakes, he did the same thing when he asked her to marry him after Kai was born. She still thinks that if his hand wasn't rubbing her the way that it did at the time, and he didn't look so sexy and beautiful, she would definitely have said no. It's too late now, unfortunately, but she's much more careful since then. Carful or not, he still manages to catch her off guard when he brings up Coulson's preposterous idea. Is he out of his mind completely?

"Are you completely out of your mind?" she asks him angrily.

"Don't be mad" he sits up in the bed and smiles at her enticingly "it's just an idea."

"You two want to bring onboard a 4 months old baby? It's not an idea, it's a psychotic episode."

"Mel…" he reaches with his hand towards her, but she shakes him off.

"I know you want back" she says quietly "I can't blame you. You left at the peak of your career; it's your first team. I'll let you go back, I already told you. I won't hold you to a promise you made during an emotional time and out of guilt."

"Out of guilt?!" he all but cries.

"Look, Grant" she moves to sit in front of him, her hand on his knee "I made a choice to get off the field long ago. I was quite content to work in administration for five years before Coulson recruited me. I made the same choice again, when I wasn't able to perform my duties during the pregnancy. I'll make this choice again so I could be with our son, in safety."

"You miss it, too." He says "I know you do; you were already climbing the walls at home before we left." She opens her mouth to deny it but he doesn't let her "I saw your face when you entered the cockpit. You were so happy…"

"I'm happy with my son." She smiles gently.

"I'm happy with him too" he reaches for her, and grabs her hand to pull her over and make her sit in his lap. His arms come to wrap around her and hold her close to him "I'm happy with the both of you. I don't think I can survive another time apart from either of you."

They sit silently, held together, breathing in synch. In the temporary makeshift crib at the bedside, their infant son is sleeping peacefully.

"Coulson is crazy" she says after a long long while when neither of them speaks "it will never work. S.H.I.E.L.D. will never allow it. Besides, what does he expect, for us to go on a mission away from the bus with a baby monitor as part of our combat gear?"

"Maybe" he chuckles "I'm sure Fitz can build one hell of a baby monitor…"

"You're both crazy" she mumbles, laying her head on her husband's chest.

"So… you want to go for it?" he asks after a while.

"Sure" she sighs "why not?"


	2. Chapter 2

I am so sorry for the late update. I want to thank the people who read and follow this story. And especially those who left me reviews. I want to thank the lovely **gumcrunch** for the awesome idea and inspiration for this chapter.

Please leave me some words to tell me what you think.

* * *

"Wait" she pushes him off of her "wait… it's too quiet in here…"

"Not for long" he smiles smugly, resuming his attack on her neck "I'm planning to have you screaming under me in exactly two minutes… we'll have plenty of noise then…" She rolls her eyes at his arrogant declaration "or above me" he agrees "I really don't care..." it makes her smile, slightly, and he's happy to feel her relaxing under his touch again. He kisses her marvels at her taste in his mouth.

They sit on the bed in their room, kissing slowly, content with the rare opportunity to finally find a moment to be alone together. She strokes his hair gently, humming quietly when he puts a big hand on her breast. "Hi" he whispers, looking at her lovingly, his hand moving strands of black hair behind her ear.

"Hi, agent" she whispers back, his eyes are so soft, with so much love in them, she really missed having him all to herself like this.

"Still" she pushes him away suddenly "it _really is_ too quiet in here… what am I missing?"

"Will you relax already?" he sighs "I'm trying to do something here, and you're ruining it." She watches him for a moment, he has that sweet little pout on his face, so similar to their child's pout when he's hungry it makes her smile despite his apparent annoyance when he feels how his plans are being snatched away from between his fingers. He's right, it's been way too long. Ever since they came on the bus again, letting their team invade their carefully built privacy, their family's simple and confined existence, they didn't have a moment break from the chaotic atmosphere, the ongoing assignments, the briefing, debriefing and re-debriefing Coulson made them go through. Add to that a four month old baby who is used to having his parents around him at all times, who due to the lack of authorization is still sleeping in a temporary crib in their room. With all that going on, they didn't have time to just be together on their own, to talk, not to mention to touch each other. He was bound to break eventually.

He pulled her out of the cockpit ten minutes ago, ordered her to follow him to their room. Well, not ordered as much as begged and pleaded. After forcing her in their room and locking the door behind them, he sat on the bed, pulled her to sit in his lap and told her he needs her. Now. Or he's not responsible for his actions.

He kisses her again, thoroughly, like he has all the time in the world, and she feels like she's melting into his embrace, letting his warmth seep through her and remind her everything she forgot about her husband's strong and muscular body.

"_The baby!_" she finally gets it, sitting up, leaning on his chest and looking at him with alarm "_where is the baby?_"

"He's fine" he sighs in misery "I left him with Skye. Please Mel… just…"

"With Skye?" she looks at him with annoyance "from all of them you chose Skye? I think from the bunch of them she's the most unreliable. She'll get on her computer and forget all about him."

"He'll be fine" he pulls her against him again "he's a tough little baby. He's yours and mine, after all."

"Skye has the tendency to get herself into troubles. I don't know…"

"What's the worst she can do?" he smiles, kissing the point where her neck meets her shoulder, making her shudder, the usual response for his expert ministrations. "I'll be quick, I promise."

"If something will happen to him…" she mumbles, letting him pull down the zipper of her uniform.

"Nothing will happen to him" he murmurs, kissing each and every newly exposed patch of skin he can see "anyway, we can always make another one, just in case."

"_Another one?!_" she raises her head to look at her obviously mentally disturbed husband "it's a miracle we even have this one. I don't think we could… I mean even if we… anyway, we were planning on coming back on the…"

"A little girl" he whispers, his movements becoming more urgent, more demanding as he touches her all over "a small little girl with your hair and your eyes. A beautiful, strong, sweet little girl" he lets his weight crash her to the bed as he holds her behind her neck, looking pointedly into her eyes "let's make another baby, Mel…" he breathes "I want you…"

Before he finishes his thought they hear a loud shriek from the direction of the lab. They look at each other in alarm they can recognize Simmons's voice "_the baby_!"

* * *

They burst into the lab and see Skye, Fitz and Simmons standing against the wall, looking horrified above them.

"What is it?" he shouts, looking at the three agents in alarm. They all turn their heads to look at him, sheer panic on their faces. Fitz only points towards the ceiling above them.

"_What the hell?!_" They both cry together. When they look up they see their infant son floating up in the air, 12 feet above the floor. When he sees his parents the baby starts giggling and laughing, waving his little arms in the air and it makes him float up and down in a rapid pace, and even make some unintentional summersaults in mid air. They instinctively jump towards him, trying to reach him but he makes a few loops, way too high for them to take a hold of him. Finally Ward climbs on the holotable "What are you doing, you'll break it." Fitz cries, a sharp look from both specialists make him shut up. If he gets their meaning correctly, the holotable is not the only thing they're about to break around here.

"Kai" Ward smiles reassuringly towards the happily flying baby "come here, buddy. Come to daddy." He reaches to him slowly and the child laughs again, making another loop in the air before he comes close enough for his father to grab at his foot and pull him into his arms. The child giggles uncontrollably when Ward tries to correct his hold on him and he slips from his hands again. The others try to hide their laughter when May sends them a murderous look. The next time the baby comes close enough Ward's specialist's instincts help him to grab him by his small arm before he flies away to the other side of the room. He pulls him gently towards him and hugs him to his chest, exhaling in relief.

He climbs down from the table with the baby tightly secured in his embrace and looks pointedly at the three young agents before him. His wife takes the baby from him as soon as she can reach him and tries to assess him quickly. He looks unharmed, happy and cute as ever.

"What. Have. You. Done. To. My. Son?" she turns towards them threateningly. They all start talking together in a cacophony of words and excuses. Looking at each other, pointing at the ceiling, at the lab, at the baby.

"_Quiet!_" Ward shouts, slamming his fist on the holotable. "You!" he points to Simmons "explain."

"It was an accident!" Simmons says hurriedly. "We were doing an experiment with gravitonium, and I think. We didn't mean to cause him any harm. We didn't see anything it happened so quickly…"

"Wait, Gravitonium? That element Dr. Hall was working on?" he looks at her worriedly "I thought we got rid of it. That it was all secured in the sand box."

"It is!" she says quickly "more exactly, it was. I mean we… you see… Jimmy… he sent us… we were doing him a favor." He furrow his eyebrows with confusion a her incoherent rambling.

"Oh for the love of. I thought she was supposed to be the intelligent one." May hands him the baby and walks to stand in front of Simmons, holding her under her chin. "Now, from the beginning, slowly." She whispers "who is Jimmy?"

"Our friend from the academy" Simmons spits quickly "he works in the sand box. He was working on Dr. Hall's project for reclassification. He spotted a mistake in the electromagnetic measurements in the records so he had to reassess the…" she can see May's expression indicating she is about to lose her patience "he sent us a sample. It's S.H.I.E.L.D's protocol to have reassessments done in two separate independent laboratories. We were measuring it, and we were looking at the computer, with our backs to the gravitonium… Kai must have crawled towards it, it's shiny and it's moving rapidly, it must have caught his eye…"

"I only put him on the table for a minute" Skye jumps in, her eyes on the ground "his shoe fell so I bent over to pick it up… before I knew it he was moving away from me" she looks with tears in her eyes at the two furious parents "I couldn't reach him on time."

"He's a fast little bugger" Fitz mumbles, earning himself an angry glare from Ward.

"So what happened to him?" Ward looks at his baby boy, who seems to be quite content with the fuss around him, smiling brightly to everyone, holding at his father's shirt. Whenever he lets go of the strong hold he has on him he can feel him rising upwards as if he's about to fly away.

"He'd eaten it." Simmons says "at first nothing happened and we tried to find something to give him to make him throw up, but after five minutes he suddenly stopped, sat in his place for a few seconds looking at the air and we just watched him, before suddenly he started to elevate slowly until finally he was hovering in the air above us. We were so shocked we couldn't move fast enough, and he just flew to the ceiling, too high for us to reach, we were so shocked we all screamed, but he didn't look like he was afraid or anything and then... well then, you came in…"

* * *

They sit in the lab, Fitz and Simmons with their sophisticated equipment, Skye at the other side of the wall doing her own research on her laptop, Coulson sits near the holotable looking at May and Ward who hold at their son, one at each arm of the young boy as he hovers peacefully a few inches above the holotable. "So… you think it could be temporary?" Coulson asks "maybe after he'll digest all of it, and after he'll excrete the element out of his system. Maybe he'll… get better." Ward and May look hopefully towards Simmons and Fitz when he says it. They don't look so sure, they look at each other for a second before they look back at the worried parents.

"The material has already absorbed into his blood stream." Simmons says "the spectrograph shows it distinctly. It's hard to know at this moment, but…"

"But?!" Ward and May look at her anxiously.

"I don't think it's temporary." She says. They look at each other, and Ward lets go of his son to put his hand on his wife's cheek. The baby takes this opportunity and starts hovering higher above the table. May grabs him quickly and holds him against her bosom, looking at her husband with silent despair.

"I'm sorry" Skye whispers "I should have been more careful. I promised to look after him and now…"

"It's not your fault" Ward mumbles unconvincingly "he's a baby, they can do unexpected things."

"I should inform Jimmy." Simmons says "this is an important discovery, I mean… an unknown feature of the gravitonium. They should know about…"

"No!" May and Coulson says immediately.

"This stays here" Coulson explains "I will not allow Kai to become a guinea pig in the Hub." Ward and May look at him with gratitude "Simmons, Fitz figure anything you can about this new… superpower. Skye, we need to ship something back to the sand box. Let's try to cover the tracks of the missing material. Log it all back nice and tidy. May, Ward…" he looks at them for a second "we'll figure it out. I promise. I think it's been a long day for all of us. We should all call it a day."

- TBC -


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for the long delay. I hope some of you are still interested. I totally realize this is not the most popular storyline in the show at this point. But if some of you still hold a candle for May and Ward, this one is for you.

* * *

She walks out of the bathroom, wearing a robe and combing her wet hair. She sighs when she sees Ward sitting on their bed looking worriedly at the infant who's lying in his crib, playing with his toys. Well… maybe lying is not the right word. If you look carefully you can see that he's hovering an inch above the mattress. It doesn't seem to bother him, though. He smiles suddenly, stretching his arms above his head, kicking his legs out. She can see Ward looking at him softly, adoringly. The same way she looks at the both of them.

"It's so strange, he looks totally fine" he says when he finds her standing above them.

"He does" she agrees.

"If anything, I would say he seemed to be quite happy with all the attention he got."

"He did" she smiles softly, stroking her husband's black hair. "He's so friendly," he mumbles "it's hard to imagine he's _our_ son…" She smiles. She can't contradict him about that.

"How will he ever learn how to walk?" he shakes his head "I mean, you have to be on the ground to learn how to walk, don't you?" She sits beside him, laying her head on his shoulder, a quiet sigh escaping her lips.

"Come to bed, Grant" she murmurs, her lips on his neck "we'll figure it out tomorrow."

He pauses for a while before he answers "you go" he whispers, turning his head to kiss her forehead "I'll sit here for a little longer."

"Grant" she whispers "please lie with me. It makes no sense to keep tormenting yourself like that."

He doesn't answer, and after a few more minutes she gives up and crawls under the covers. He still sits there, watching over their baby boy when exhaustion wins and she falls asleep.

…..

"_Look, Mel!_" he shakes her up awakening her violently from her slumber.

"What?" she jumps off the bed, her instincts on high alert.

"Look" he whispers, indicating to their sleeping son. The boy lies in his crib, sleeping, his body touching the mattress completely.

"He's not flying anymore. What happened?" she asks with excitement "is it gone?" He only shrugs before he moves slowly towards the baby, touching his face gently. The boy stirs, an annoyed pout on his face. They find themselves holding their breath when they see him waking up slowly, watching his surroundings sleepily. Nothing happens at first, the baby just lies there, squinting up at his worried parents. They look at each other, and Ward captures her hand, kissing her cold fingers in silent relief; until suddenly they see him starting to elevate slowly from the surface of the bed, and there he is, hovering in the air again.

"God damn it" Ward shoots from the bed, kicking the wall with frustration. The noise makes the baby jump and he looks at his mother for a second before he starts crying, his body flying even higher above the bed, and moving towards her. She grabs him quickly and holds him against her.

"Shhhh sweetie" she murmurs, sending a disapproving glare towards her husband "daddy didn't mean to startle you like that. Shhhh my love, don't cry..."

She feeds him, and Ward finally gets a hold on himself and comes to sit next to them, kissing his son's head as a silent apology. The boy falls asleep eventually, and she lays him in the crib again, making sure he's secured under the blanket. Ward already lies on his back in their bed and she moves to find the perfect spot under his arm. She falls asleep quickly, surrendering to the warmth of his touch as he stays up for a long long time after her.

* * *

The next morning she finds them in the kitchen.

"Come here, buddy" she sees Ward standing in front of the kitchen table looking at his son, hovering happily about a feet above the surface "come to daddy, Kai. I know you can do it."

She watches with amusement how Ward is pleading and begging his son to comply, making funny faces and cute noises which cause the boy to laugh and giggle. If only his S.H.I.E.L.D commanders could have seen him now, trying to coax an impudent baby to follow orders. A _flying_ impudent baby with his genes and hers… Well, it's kinda cute in a pathetic kind of way, apparently her husband is a man who doesn't back up from a challenge.

"There you go" She hears Ward's proud cry and when she looks up she can see the baby hovering slowly towards him, bumping haphazardly into his open arms "I knew you can do it" he smiles brightly "good boy." He plants a big kiss on the boy's cheek, before he turns towards her triumphantly.

"You're in a good mood" she smiles, moving towards them, leaning in to kiss the child who reaches for her with his chubby arms. Ward looks at her excitedly. "What?" she asks suspiciously "what are you so happy about?"

"He can control it!" he tells her with an unconcealed pride.

"What?" she frowns "just because he hovered towards you after you begged him to? I'm pretty sure it was a fluke."

"Nope" he doesn't let her ruin his good mood "we've been trying this for the last 2 hours. I'm telling you, he can control it. He even stopped hovering and landed on the floor when I gave him his toy airplane."

"Ward" she sighs "I know you're worried. We both are. I know you would like to believe that…."

"I'm not imagining this, Mel" he insists "I thought about it after we saw him lying down when he was sleeping. He can control it, and he can direct himself, in a way, to do what he wants. It's just… he's only a little baby, he can't really think about it in an organized manner. He has to want a certain thing in order to plan his movements."

"Ward…" she says skeptically.

"Simmons and Fitz think the same."

She looks at her watch. It's 5:30 in the morning. "Simmons and Fitz?" she raises an eyebrow "are they even conscious this time of the morning?"

"I woke them up" he shrugs "I had to tell them about my theory. They were… less than appreciative, I confess… but I reminded them whose fault this mess actually is so it helped to shut them up. They're at the lab, preparing a way to measure his brain waves."

He smiles at her broadly, his eyes glinting with joy and pride and something else all together… and it makes her smile too, his excitement is practically contagious. "Wait," she stops suddenly "this is not what you're happy about, is it? We're still stuck with a flying baby in our hands, it doesn't matter if he can control it or not… it's still a… oh…" she finally gets it, and her husband's sparkling eyes confirm that she knows exactly what's on his mind "oh my god, you're loving it!"

"Well…" he smiles sheepishly "I wouldn't have done it on purpose but given we're stuck with this…"

"Ward!" she warns "stop smiling!"

"May… just think about it…"

"No! It's all about you and your macho pride, is it?!"

"May…" he's still smiling.

"Grant…" she growls.

"I have a superhero baby!" he says happily "it's so cool!"

* * *

He enters their room to find her lying on the bed with Kai. The baby is laughing uncontrollably as she's pushing him towards the bed beside her and letting him fly back up again and again, under her touch. She smiles too, her special smile she reserves only to their son. It's a real open, broad, genuine smile that goes from her lips to her eyes and crashes his heart whenever he sees it. She's the happiest he'd ever seen her, when she's alone with Kai like this, and it almost chokes him with feelings when he remembers that when he first fell in love with her he wasn't even sure she was capable of being so happy again. He'd heard the rumors even before he met her. The gossip around the hub, the names, the legends, the stories… He studied her entire history when he was in Specops. If asked, he could recite her entire battles history, the names of her opponents, her failures, her triumphs, her unique expertise... He was full of admiration from the start, fascinated by her skills, her dedication, her morals. Secretly he aspired to become a least as good as her. It took two seconds from the moment he saw her for the first time in person, on the bus, and until his innocent admiration transformed into a full burning, crashing desire. He was hooked from the first time he laid his eyes on her, fell in love big time, like he never had before. It took him almost eight months to come forward and expose his true feelings, and a week after that, they were already deep in a secret relationship, filled with hot steamy hook ups, that grew and transformed almost without their awareness into a deep love and devotion. She got pregnant against their better judgment. They never talked about it, somehow it was clear that there's no room for a family or children in their lives. That it would be too dangerous, that it will take their focus away from the missions in front of them. He remembers the morning she told him. Waking him up urgently, showing him a pregnancy test with two pink lines on it. She was so annoyed by his slow reaction, but what could he do? It took him at least five minutes to pick up his jaw from the floor and respond to the world shuttering news in a semi appropriate way. She didn't expect him to be so happy, he guesses. He took a hold of her hand, and pulled her against him and they had the best sex they've ever had. He whispered in her ear how much he loved her and how happy he was and she told him he's crazy and it will never work, but at the same time held him against her so hard, kissing him like nothing else around them mattered, telling him silently she felt the same way. He looks at the two most precious beings in his life, lying on the bed in a world of their own and thanks god for all his blessings.

He drops on the bed beside her, and leans in to kiss her long and hard.

"What's that for?" she asks, a little short of breath when he lets her go.

"Nothing special" he shrugs, his face flushed. She smiles slightly, shaking her head at his usual inability to speak his feelings. It's the way it always works between them, the way that they are both comfortable with. Sometimes she catches him looking at her when he thinks she doesn't notice, his eyes showing her what on his mind, and it makes her feel a little self conscious, as she tries to hide her flustered reaction when he puts her on a pedestal like that. She's much more careful than him, keeping her emotions at bay. When _she_ finds herself watching him and feels her love for him almost drowning her, she makes sure he doesn't see.

"We made some progress today." He says, pulling at his son's leg absentmindedly, making him roll in the air with a giggle "he was able to remain on the floor for almost ten minutes and Simmons said she could see the way his functional MRI showed a decrease in glucose consumption in his basal ganglia." She cocks an eyebrow at him "apparently it's a good sign" he sighs "it means he's learning how to control his abilities."

"Good" she declares "maybe by the time we'll get to the hub we'll be able to hide it. I'm not letting them lay a finger on him. I want it kept secret between the people we trust."

"Of course" he agrees "you, me, Coulson, FitzSimmons and Skye."

"You forget someone" she reminds him.

"Who?" he frowns, trying to see where she's getting at.

"You do remember we're making a stop in Minnesota tomorrow, don't you?"

He looks at her for a few seconds before he remembers. He moves to sit up on the bed looking at her horrified. "_No…!_"

"Ward, we've made this arrangement weeks ago."

"I know…" he whines "but can't we tell her we can't? Make something up?"

"You want to lie to her? Seriously?" she looks at him skeptically "you're braver than I thought."

"Oh for god's sakes" he huffs "this is going to be a disaster and you know it. It's obvious she'll blame this on me."

"No she wouldn't. Why would she?"

"Because she hates my guts, that's why" he frowns "she'd probably been waiting for this opportunity since we got married."

"She doesn't hate your guts." May rolls her eyes "she likes you. She just has a weird way of showing it sometimes… "

"She does hate me" he crosses his arms on his chest, pursing his lips together "she hated me since the first time she saw me."

"Well…" she can't really contradict it, with all truthfulness.

"Just imagine what she'll think of me now that she finds out her only grandchild can fly."

"It will be alright" she gets up, kissing him on his forehead before she makes her way to the bathroom "we'll explain that it was an accident. I won't let you take the blame for it. I promise."

Kai is flying towards his father, and bumping gently into his chest when she says it "hey kiddo" he holds him in front of him, looking at his beautiful face "you'd better learn how to do it much better by the time your grandmother gets here. If not, you'd find yourself an only child because she'll probably cut my balls off."

* * *

They stand in a raw in the cargo bay. Coulson, then Ward, then her. Skye is standing beside her holding the baby with Fitz and Simmons by her side as a proper welcome party. They wait for the cargo door to open, and Ward realizes he never noticed how slowly this wretched door works.

"So May has a mother?" Fitz whispers to Simmons "I can't believe it."

"What did you expect?" Simmons whispers back "that she just popped up one day all grown up and wearing uniforms?" he looks at her in a way that suggests that that was exactly what he had expected "everybody has a mother" she whispers towards him.

"Ahhmmm" Skye coughs slightly.

"Well, almost everybody" Simmons mumbles "sorry Skye."

"It's okay" Skye smiles "Ward was bitching about May's mother for hours yesterday. From what I gathered, being motherless is not the worst thing that can happen to you."

"Grant" May whispers urgently a few seconds before the cargo door is completely open.

"What?" he looks at her in alarm.

"I've changed my mind."

"What do you mean?" he looks at her horrified.

"If she asks, I'm telling you it's all your fault."

"What?! You can't do this to me. You promised you'll back me up."

"I thought better of it" she informs him, and at least has the decency to look guilty "you're right, she'll freak out, no need to escalate it even more."

_"What?!"_ he hisses at her furiously.

"It makes no tactical sense for me to be on her bad side as well" she explains "and as you know, she already thinks the worst of you, what difference can't it make anyway?"

"_What?!_" he looks at her with barely contained anger "you told me she liked me."

"Don't be ridiculous." She scoffs "she totally hates your guts."


End file.
